Metal hydrides are a class of compounds which have found utility for the storage of hydrogen in solid form, heat and energy storage in the form of hydrogen absorption, electrochemical applications such as battery cells based upon electrochemical reaction of metals to form hydrides and other applications. For many applications a significant property is the amount of hydrogen stored in the hydride as a fraction of the total weight of hydride. For such applications metals with lowest atomic weights are desirable. While lithium hydride (LiH) has been used in many hydride systems, beryllium hydride (BeH.sub.2) has not been used, even though it has a higher theoretical weight capacity for hydrogen than lithium. This failure has been because beryllium hydride does not form easily and reversably by direct reaction between gaseous hydrogen and beryllium metal.
Beryllium hydride has been considered for rocket fuels and other applications where weight density is important and where hydrogen is desorbed from the hydride, but need not be reabsorbed. Beryllium hydride has been produced for such applications by a variety of complex chemical processes such as described in the following United States patents: Nos.
3,574,563 Gunderloy, Jr. et al. Apr. 13, 1971 PA1 3,811,972 Niebylski et al. May 21, 1974 PA1 3,816,607 Frey, Jr. et al. June 11, 1974 PA1 3,816,193 Brendell June 11, 1974 PA1 3,816,608 Baker et al. June 11, 1974 PA1 3,832,456 Kobetz et al. Aug. 27, 1974 PA1 3,845,199 Shepherd, Jr. Oct. 29, 1974 PA1 3,864,464 Shepherd, Jr. et al. Feb. 4, 1975 PA1 3,872,224 Lowrance et al. Mar. 18, 1975 PA1 3,883,646 Roberts May 13, 1975 PA1 3,917,809 Murib et al. Nov. 4, 1975 PA1 3,919,320 Murib et al. Nov. 11, 1975 PA1 3,971,846 Skelcey July 27, 1976 PA1 Be.sub.2 Zr C22 PA1 Be.sub.2 Hf C22 PA1 Be.sub.2 Nb C15 PA1 Be.sub.2 Ta C15 PA1 Be.sub.2 Ti C15 PA1 Be.sub.2 V C14
In addition hydrides of alloys containing beryllium have recently been proposed wherein beryllium is a relatively minor portion of the alloy. Because of the predominance of heavier metals, such systems have significantly lower weight densities of hydrogen than beryllium hydride as prepared by the above chemical process.